Okay, here's the deal. As you folks may have figured by now, I've got a few quirks in this here personality. Aside from the cigars, I mean, and the fact that my entire diet comes from the deep-fried food group. For example, I have a strange dig for Tom Jones music, 'specially "It's Not Unusual." That little guitar lick at the end of the first break just really rocks my belt buckle. I also keep three quarters in a secret pocket in my wallet. Call it good luck, call it superstition, I don't know, but I feel really weird if I don't have 'em with me. I always put my left sock and shoe on before my right. Who knows where that came from....
I'm also a huge creep junkie. I absolutely love to be creeped out. If it can give me the shivers, give it to me twice. If it makes me cringe and squirm, all the better. If it can make me stand up and adjust my drawers, it's a prime creep-out, one that'll haunt my soul for a few days. I have little respect for the gross-out, now. A gross-out is a cop-out, a cheap SFX trick that's there only to revolt, not to slink inside you and worm around in your pillowcase at night.
Only a few movies have just absolutely given me a terminal case of bird leather. All of them had gore as an element, but their lasting quality was in the way they were made. The blend of acting talent, excellent direction, and, more often than not, great cinematography. Let's be honest. Think back on, say, Silence of the Lambs, one of the best thrillers to ever come out of Hollywood. What bothered you more: the few flashes of blood here and there, or the way Anthony Hopkins voice creeped into your ear, like an evil subconscious, asking the questions and telling the stories we didn't want to think about but had to hear? Seven got a little more graphic, true, but, did the thing on the bed bother you more because of the way it looked, or was it because it looked like that and was still alive?
Well, the goosebumps came a-callin' the other night, as I settled into my rickety theater seat for Kiss The Girls. And, let me tell you, folks, the goosebumps settled in for a long ride that night, 'cause Kiss the Girls is one forever more good thriller! It gets into your head quickly, and starts picking at your brain like a goldminer chipping for nuggets.
Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) is a forensic psychologist with the Washington, D.C. police. He gets involved with a series of kidnappings in Durham, N.C. when his niece becomes one of the victims. He jets down to Durham to assist in the case, whether he's wanted or not. The victims are being kidnapped by a man who calls himself "Casanova," and leaves one of his victims dead, found tied to a tree "for the critters to find." Cross questions the fact that there haven't been other bodies found, and comes up with a phenomenally chilling theory: Casanova is not in this for murder, he's collecting women, and killing them only when he has to. He's keeping the other victims alive somewhere, for some other purpose.
When one of the victims, Dr. Kate McTiernan, (Ashley Judd) is lucky enough to escape from Casanova, she attests to Cross's theory. She's seen the other victims, kept like animals in a network of underground caves. Cross and Kate set out to track Casanova down. They follow him across the country to the West Coast, where they slowly, almost teasingly, unravel the rest of the story.
Freeman is still the best player in the game, folks, no doubt about it. He has the uncanny ability to command focus onscreen even when he is a supporting character in a scene. Just check a few scenes from Driving Miss Daisy and The Shawshank Redemption to confirm the notion. I think the magic of Morgan comes from his ability to react as well as act. His voice speaks from some inner wisdom, and his eyes put check marks beside every question. He's at his best when he doesn't speak at all, instead letting his eyes, face, hands, and body explain the emotion. I think in some ways, he may be too good of an actor, so natural as to be incognito. (And, because his style is never showy or blubbery, he'll probably always be a bridesmaid come Oscar time.)
But, Morgan is not the only all-star on this team. It's a breath of fresh air to see Ashley Judd give another kickin' performance. She gets back to the form we all saw in Ruby In Paradise, and the form that almost nobody saw in Normal Life. She has a convincing quality that a select handful of people can channel, a quality that got wasted in A Time To Kill, and a quality I hope she never allows another director to throw away. If she stays away from Shumacher, she oughta be fine.
Thankfully, director Gary Fleder turned himself around from the abomination that was Things to Do In Denver When You're Dead. Here, he's dead on the money with almost every shot. He, along with cinematographer Aaron Schneider, borrow from the master, Gordon Willis, and play the "less is more" card. They use shadowy overhead lighting, giving us lean looks at the surroundings. We see what we're supposed to see and nothing more. I would draw a comparison to Seven, but that'd be obvious and unfair. Especially to screenwriter David Klass, who was working from the original book by James Patterson. Klass allows a lot more dialogue than is normal for this type of movie, but it works well, mainly because of Freeman and Judd's ability to make exposition sound like conversation, and that, dear friends, is rare talent. On a slightly related side note, have you ever spent time watching the lips of "the other guy", meaning the person who's not saying the current line? Next time you're trapped watching some really bad movie or TV show, (soaps are the worst) start studying the mouths of the actors, when they're NOT saying lines. If they're not lipsyncing along with their counterpart, they're often sittin' there mouthbreathing, on red-alert for their next cue. It's a hootenanny trick that'll amuse you in your darkest hours. Helped me survive countless episodes of my first wife's favorite show, "Knots Landing."
You may have noticed that, as much as I liked this movie, I didn't call it a medical miracle. Kiss the Girls has a way intricate plot, one that teases and dances us to our destination. I won't go detailin' because I refuse to spew out plot surprises that others have woven so well. That being said, there is one detail, one discovery, that I thought was totally out of sync with the rest of the movie. It banged into me like a rear-end fender bender, and wrecked the movie's finely crafted balance. A forgiveable sin, maybe, but I've gotta wear the neckbrace in public.
Come now. Don't let the fact that this thing's not perfect scare you away. Even Sean Connery wears a toupee sometimes. Instead, let Kiss the Girls do its job, and scare you to death. With the Halloween season nippin' at us, it's about time for a good creep-out. Give Kiss a chance, and you won't even need to visit the Jaycees' Annual Fundraising Spooky House. But go anyway. They need the money.
Copyrighted image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
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in for observation